Italian beer is being undermined by low-cost foreign competition. Beverages with quality standards lower than those prescribed by Italian regulations, but authorized for marketing throughout the EU under the principle of mutual recognition.
Italian beer, low-cost competition
According to Italian law, “beer” is a name that can be used only if the product has an alcohol content of more than 3.5 percent and a Plato content of at least 10.5 percent.
While Italian brewers guarantee quality in the terms described above, companies from other European countries flood the Peninsula’s retail market with rivers of colored water, pseudo-beers with Plato degrees below the minimum threshold.
The tax issue
Exacerbating the imbalance is the tax system, denounces Assobirra, the Italian brewers’ association.
In addition to saving on the amount of raw material (especially malt), ‘low cost’ foreign producers also save on excise taxes, which in Italy are in fact calculated on the Plato grade.
